Judge suspended in video beating returns to bench

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Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams returns after a lunch recess at the Aransas County Courthouse in Rockport, Texas. (AP Photo/Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Michael Zamora, File)

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - A Texas judge shown in a video beating his teenage daughter in 2004 will return to the bench this week after the Texas Supreme Court lifted his suspension.

The justices reinstated Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams on Tuesday, a year after they suspended him with pay when a video of him beating of his daughter became an Internet sensation.

Adams is scheduled to preside over cases on the regular court docket Wednesday in Rockport, Aransas County District Clerk Pam Heard told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times for an article in Sunday's edition.

However, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services will no longer present him with cases involving violence against children.

County commissioners voted earlier this year to cut Adams' 2013 salary by 1.6 percent to $144,000. Other elected county officials received a 2 percent cost-of-living increase. Adams doesn't come up for re-election until 2014.

The sheriff's office said it will enhance security the day he returns to work, a move Heard welcomed in light of the intense emotions generated by the family law cases presented in Adams' court.

"Everything is different now in this day and age, and you always have to worry about it," she said.

Adams' older daughter, Hillary Adams, uploaded the 2004 video to YouTube just over a year ago. The video shows William Adams repeatedly whipping his then-16-year-old daughter with a belt for illegally downloading music.

The nearly eight-minute video viewed millions of times shows the judge lashing Hillary in the legs more than a dozen times and growing increasingly irate while she screams and refuses to turn over on a bed to be beaten.

"Lay down or I'll spank you in your (expletive) face," Adams screams as Hillary wails and pleads for him to stop.

Adams wife at the time, Hallie Adams, also is shown striking the then-16-year-old girl. She and her daughter have reconciled since then and have argued that Hillary's father is unfit to sit on the county bench.

Adams' attorneys have argued in court that his ex-wife is motivated by a desire to strip him of custody of their youngest daughter and Hillary, now 24, is motivated by bitterness over losing his financial support.

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